I met Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen last Thursday!

[JPPMcStepBBlues]

Just got back from the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival and Hot Tuna played there on Thursday. I was a volunteer there so I had a pass to go all around the place so it was a little easy, but after there set was over I ran down to the back stage aera and waited for them to walk down the stairs from the stage and meet them. Jorma was cool and shook my hand, but I really wanted to meet Jack Casady and when I did, he was awesome. He stopped and had a conversation with me and it was great. He attributed his talent that night to the full moon but I told that he is amazing everyday for the last 40 years. Both of them are so cool and very approachable, also they played really well and played "99 Year Blues" which I really wanted to hear and Jack played a big solo during it which was awesome. I also met Jesse Colin Young (The Youngbloods) and Peter from Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dar Williams and about half the people who played there............great festival.

[jimmie ray]

Sounds cool! Was it an acoustic show? What other songs impressed you? I think it's great how much these guys are giving and not just keeping the blues alive, but pumping the blues full of life!!!!

[JPPMcStepBBlues]

It was an acoustic show, they played Genesis, I Am The Light of This World, Hesitation Blues, I Know You Rider, 99 Year Blues, and some other stuff, all good though and they sounded amazing. It was a festival so they only played for about an hour, but it was still great.

[jimmie ray]

I enjoyed some of the other bands that were joining Hot Tuna during the recent local tour. Is the bluegrass group "Railroad Earth" still with them?

[JPPMcStepBBlues]

They played at the festival but it was on a differemt night, so I dont think that they are still with them............I saw them in the fall as well and no one had opened for them that night, did Railroad Earth open for Hot Tuna when you saw them?

[BlackCladLizard]

im too jelous for words...................

[jimmie ray]

Railroad Earth was the first group on. We were there from the first song they played to the last song Tuna played. There were 4 groups total, about 7 hours of music!
For $20, you could bring chairs and sit on the lawn above the seats. We shelled out an extra $10 to get orchestra seats, maybe 10 rows from the stage - but still were able to bring in chairs for kicking back up on the lawn for the in between. No alcohol served, no alcohol allowed in, though - so there were more people out in the parking lot franticly guzzling their booze before coming in, than in the amphitheatre enjoying the show and supporting the musicians. Now you can appreciate my clever plan of bringing my own chairs, if you can picture how many pints of sambuca can be hidden within a stack of resin chairs!!!!
Anyway, Railroad Earth had a real nice way of intertwining instrumentals and it was a relaxing start to the day. I only have that Jerry Garcia/NRPS/Vasser Clements based "Old and in the Way" to compare it to - I do have to work on building a bluegrass collection and RRE will probably be a start.
If anyone has further recommendations, I would appreciate their opinions on some good bluegrass - and I mainly concentrate on outstanding instrumental work. For my simple ways, the lyrics are just there to differentiate between the songs, and a lively fiddle has the sweetest voice of all!!!!!!!